we've got to stop being the stupid party. it's time for a new republican party that talks like adults. >> harsh words as one of the rising stars in the gop leads a come to jesus moment. are we about to witness a change in the party of lincoln? good saturday afternoon to you, i'm craig melvin. you are watching msnbc, the place for politics plus how the fierce urgency of now, after newtown has turned what's politically palable in washington? maybe. when gadhafi's regime fell, literally, truckloads of weapons were let loose in africa. richard engel will join me live to talk to us about how all of that is coming back to haunt us.

first, the rea action to tom harkin's announcement that heel not be running for his sixth term in between 14. it's just time to step aside. senate majority leader harry reid praising his -- he's been a champion for improving americans' access to affordable health care. tom is a passionate progressive whose deeply-held principles prieded a guiding light to democrats for decade. since a federal axe peels court has invalidated president obama's appointments to that board, some legal experts say the board's previous rulings may all be in trouble. and mitt romney is in washington, d.c., this week. the marriott corporation honored him and his wife ann on friday and he had the board of directors after the election and

tonight he will attend the bipartisan alfalfa club dinner in d.c.. >> and as he often does when announcing sweeping new policy measures, president obama will hit the road to unveil his plan for com prehundredsive immigration reform and he'll do that tuesday in nevada where the white houses president obama will double down on proposals that he's supported since taking office with the hope that this time the appetite on the hill is a little more hungry for change. >> what has been absent in the time he's put those principles forward has been the willingness by republicans to move forward with comprehensive immigration reform and what he hopes is that dynamic has changed. >> joining me now from the white house, white house correspondent, kristin welker, the president expected to give us the contours of a plan tuesday in las vegas. at this point do we have any

idea what it will look like? >> craig, good afternoon. i think you will hear president obama unveil his vision for comprehensive immigration reform and i don't think it will be widely different from what he's talked about. in the past, remember, this is something he's been talking about since 2008 when he first ran for president. now it looks like he may have more support after they lost the latino vote so largely during the 2012 race so in terms of what it may look like, some of what he's talked about before includes strengthening security holding businesses accountable and higher undocumented workers including the system that does a better job of reflecting the values of the united states and in essence, encouraging folks to stay here who have gone to school her, who have gone to college here and raised here and of course, that big one, and the path to citizenship. this is one of the most controversial issues.

of course, a lot of republicans don't like this idea of creating a path to citizenship. president obama has worked to get that done. the big question is how can can the white house and members of congress work together to make that happen? on friday president obama met with members of the congressional hispanic caucus here at the white house. we also have a list of some of the senators who attended that meeting. they include senator robert menendez and javier becerra and ruben hinojosa and several others and president obama trying to get their input before he hits to road to travel to las vegas before making this large announcement. prior to the tragedy in newtown, immigration was going to be president obama's top priority during this second term. so we expect him on tuesday and the days following to really push his agenda with great force. craig? >> nbc's kristen walker from 1600 pennsylvania avenue on this saturday. thank you, ma'am.

we'll check if with you later. >> thanks. paul ryan is the latest republican offering his prescription for a gop comeback. congressman ryan addressed the national review institute giving them a pep talk of sorts on how to fight the president. >> he needs to delegitimize the republican party and house republicans in particular. he'll try to divide us with phony emergencies and bogus deals. you can't get rattled. we won't play the villain in his morality plays. we have to stay united. we have to show that if given a chance, we can govern. that we have better ideas. >> paul ryan's comments come a few days after fired louisiana governor bobby jindal gave a blunt assessment of his party. >> we have to stop being the stupid party. >> it's time for a new republican party that talks like adults. it's time for us to articulate

our plans and visions for america in real terms. it's no secret we had a number of republicans who damaged the plans with offensive and bizarre comments, and i'm here to say we've had enough of that. >> i'll bring in molly ball, national political reporter for "the atlantic" and senior washington correspondent for politico. good saturday to both of you. >> hi, craig. >> bobby jindal says the republicans should stop being stupid and newt gingrich has done it, and paul ryan saying they have to pick and choose their battles wisely. why has this post-election monday morning quarterbacking, why has it lasted so long? >> i think it's because they lost. they lost in all levels, the president, the house, the senate and the federal level and the most popular game to play is kick the republican party to the point that even republicans, bobby jindal, newt gingrich and paul ryan allowed less of it.

i think the problem republicans are grappling with right now and my colleague just reported on this today is the question of whether they need to change their messaging or change their policy, and what it sounds like is the decision will be to change the messaging. oftentimes when parties lose it's hard to say our values are long and our approaches are long and the way they're communicating them are wrong and that's what we're seeing for republicans and this is nothing new. every party they have a fundamental question and they always say it's about packaging and the environment changes and then they move up and the other guys move down. >> you mentioned messaging and policy, and what you did not mention was mess efrenger and i generally the pieces that are front and center. >> i asked a question earlier that i just basically ripped off from you so you would be proud. >> thanks. >> chairman rinse priebus just

reelected every two years, here what he said about the republican renewal. >> we must compete in every state in every region, building relationships with communities we haven't before. at the rnc, we are dropping the red and blue state analysis. we must be a party concerned about every american in every neighborhood. >> the rhetoric, we've heard a lot of from different members of the gop, but here's my question, molly. how did priebus get another two years after such a bad year for republicans? >> there is a strong feeling among republicans that whatever happened in november was not reince priebus' fault, it was not the rnc's fault. a lot of it is blamed on the romney campaign which is easy to do because they're not around anymore so you can dump all of the blame on them and keep moving forward. reince priebus was elected with a goal of really not rocking the boat and raising a lot of money and he did those things.

and the position of party chairman will not be the sort of dynamic leader who blazes a trail into the future. you need candidates for that, so i completely agree with john. when it comes to telling the republican party what they ought to believe in, that's not something that members of the rnc can do, that's something that the candidates have to do to say, here's the values we want to articulate and the policies we stand for and it doesn't just consist of we're against what president obama says. >> shortening the primary calendar, how would that help? how would that work? >> they just came off a primary calendar which had a primary and it took romney a long time to become the actual nominee, to get some of the other guys off the stage. i think what they'd like to be able to do is consolidate around the candidate very quickly in

the future so that they can focus their resources on that general election. of course, it always looks that way when you have the incumbent president on the other, and they may change the calendar some. we've been watching them right now in states across the country and look for opportunities to change the way electoral map is done and the way electoral votes are portioned and there are a lot of things going on. >> has there been any talk of not having them to beat so much? >> yeah. i don't think either party wants its candidates to debate as much as republicans did in 2012 or both parties did in 2008, but craig, i don't think we'll let them get away with that. >> we all know presidential debates are great for ratings. molly, john just mentioned it and you heard about the way the electoral votes are counted and would that potentially benefit republicans in a big way and are we making too much out of that? >> the plan is pretty much dead

in the state where it advanced the furthest is virginia and the republican governor coming out against it and it hasn't advanced very far and the other states where it's been talked about. i think there's been such tremendous blowback in the public relations disaster and what it represents for the republican party it is so obvio obvious, if they look like they're trying to change the rule instead of trying to get people to vote for them, that's not going work for them. i think they realize that and people have backed off of it a lot since it's about come a thing in the last few days and it would get implemented on a large-scale basis. >> we'll see you in a few minutes. we appreciate it. >> thanks, craig. coming up, the holy grail for gun control activists and it's been introduced in the senate, but what are the chances that a new assault weapons ban will actually pass? plus, president obama and former president george w. bush have at least one thing in common according to a new poll.

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today my colleagues and i are introducing a bill to prohibit the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices that can accept more than ten rounds. >> california senator dianne feinstein's assault weapons ban would be more restricted than the law that expired a decade ago. i want to bring mack molly ball and jonathan allen, senior washington correspondent for politico. first of all, let me start with you, molly. did senator feinstein's bill have any chance of passage?

>> it's going to be very difficult. you know, this has been true since the day after the sandy hook tragedy and it's hard to see how it has changed. the math is just extremely hard. first in the senate where you have a lot of red-state democrats whose strategy electorally has been to diffuse the gun issue, to be pro-nra, pro-second amendment. >> yeah. >> and then you get to the house where there's a republican majority and we just haven't seen a lot of evidence of republicans really defecting on this issue. >> i want to bring in congressman the democrat from long island there and congressman, do we have you there? there we go. there's the congressman. thank you very much, congressman. from rhode island. i think we got that in there, at least. good to see you again, sir. >> you, too, craig. let me pick up where molly just left off there. political feasibility, is there

a chance here that the weapons assault ban gets passed? >> it comes down to whether the speaker of the house will bring a bill to the floor? i believe it would pass in a bipartisan way if they brought an assault weapons bill to the floor especially if we're talking about trying to pass something like universal background checks and closing the loopholes that don't require background checks to be done at gun shows, or private sales. so we're going to keep the momentum going and we'll try to put the pressure on to make sure that we do get a vote. >> i want to play something that vice president joe biden said at this conference. take a listen. >> they come from a small percentage of the gun crimes in america. more people out there get shot with a glock that has cartridges that you can have magazines that have two, ten, 12, 15, 30 shells

in it than from any assault weapon you see. >> it sounds like vice president biden's backing away from the ban on assault rifles. is there a chance that that measure was offered up as a political sacrificial lamb of sorts? is there a chance that a lot of folks knew they had no way of getting that through and they offered it up to be able to say, you know what? we didn't get everything that we wanted. well, i don't think the vice president is backing away at all from his support of the assault weapons ban, but there are three components and i applaud the president for wanting to pass some kind of comprehensive bill, but the main three components that we'd most like to see is the assault weapons ban and the elimination of the multi-round gun clips that have 30 or 100 rounds of ammunition and universal background checks at gun shows or private sales. so either one of those or all

together i would be happy to see and i believe it would advance the cause of further protecting people in our community with those guns getting into the wrong hands and we focus on the things that we think we can get passed and we can get a vote and we'll see some bipartisan effort here. >> the associated press reports, quote, there is a legal avenue to try to get any gun you want somewhere in the u.s. thanks to the maze of gun statutes across the country and the lack of certain federal laws. does the maze of local laws make it harder to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them? >> sure, it does. i would agree that a patchwork approach depending on state by state and letting it be done at that level does leave it wide open that you can probably get any type of gun or extended gun clip that you have. that's why federal legislation

is necessary. i understand that today there was a big rally over where thousands of people in the front of the capitol, u.s. capitol where people are coming out and demanding a change in our gun laws. we can do this in the right way and respecting the second amendment and law-abiding gun owners and making sure that we ban assault weapons and the extended round gun clips and background checks so the guns don't fall into the wrong hands. >> let me ask you about background checks very quickly. >> very quickly on the background checks, that seems to be one of the proposals that's fairly well received out there. it's sort of one of these things where the common sense seems to take rule. is that the one piece of the proposal that most folks have been able to sort of get their heads around? >> well, i certainly think that that's one of the things that the universal background check seems to have the broadest base of support. if you talked to the average

person and even many gun owners would agree that if you're going to buy a weapon then you have nothing to hide and you're in the category of people who can have a weapon there should be no trouble. no problem having a background check. this is the public speaking out and they need to call their legislators or representatives in congress saying they want to see an assault weapons ban and closing loopholes at gun shows and the extended round gun clips. >> to that effort, i applaud the president for speaking out in visualing verge. the ral that took police in the u.s. capitol and i'm trying to organize along with our children from new york, and we're trying to get people, members of congress to offer their one state of the union ticket to a member of their community who has been a victim of gun violence or a family member who has lost someone to gun violence, when the president

gives the state of the union message and i know we'll be talking about the assault weapons ban ask closing the loopholes that background checks and gun shows and he'll be talking about the p/eed to get guns out of the wrong hands and making sure we're trying to do everything in our possible, to get -- i hate to cut you off. we're out of time. jim landrieu, thank you so much. allen of politico, thanks to all of you. i do appreciate your time. the sfreffrench are hef loo involved in mali. will the united states be following them? we'll talk about that and unifying or polarizing. president obama's most recent office finds some surprising results. we'll bring that to you as well next. you're watching msnbc. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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we, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths, that all of us are created equal is the star that guides us still. >> the president repeated that phrase we, the people, some five times during his inauguration address, but that unifying message may be falling on deaf ears. in fact, according to a new analysis of gallup poll date at nation is as polarized as it has ever been. 86% of democrats and 10% of republicans say they approve of the job that president obama did in his fourth year in office that 76-point gap you saw there ties george w. bush's fourth year as the most polarized in gallup records. bush had the approval of 91% of republicans and 15% of democrats. according to gallup if the

averages hold president obama is on track to be the most polarizing president yet. up next, why is the country's oldest civil rights group joining a lawsuit against the city of new york? we'll tell you, then a little bit later this hour, why some kentucky insiders are warning ashley judd away from a senate run. you're watching msnbc, the place for politics. ♪ ♪ ♪ tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta®(eszopiclone) can help you get there. like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. lunesta should not be taken together with alcohol. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations, or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur.

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nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth! the obama white house is warning to get involved and the french conflict in mali is still uncertain. french troops have been on an aggressive push into the forth of mali. french officials claim their forces seized control of the airport and bridge from islamic fighters there. joining me in the studio is nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel. let's start in mali. how much has the white house gotten involved? >> i don't think the u.s. will

get very involved. i think the u.s. will help and will be providing a lot of support, but in the back. we'll help with some refuelling and we'll help with some airlift, satellite imagery, maybe some drones, but i think it would be almost impossible to think there will be american boots on the ground. >> is it because there's no national interest in that country? >> no, it's a national interest, but france is already doing it and if france wants to be out in front on that the united states is very happy to see france out if front on that. the operation, as far as i understand it is to push these islamic militant groups out of the populated areas in mali and get them into the desert and once they're in the desert they're not an urgent or imminent threat to anybody and then have some sort of african solution, an african force that can be trained probably with u.s. involvement and the african force will contain them and this isn't going to be a long problem and this isn't going to be over in a few weeks and the military push can push them out in the

desert in a few weeks. >> what is the national interest for folks who don't follow these stories as closely as you. >> you have an al qaeda group that is active in north africa. it has killed seven americans just in the last few months in benghazi and then in the algeria hostage which turned into a massacre. that's the same group that is linked to the militants we're fighting in mali and it's a very large area. you have islamic militant groups in alliance with each other, operating in a space that's much bigger than france itself. so it's in france's interest, it's in the united states' interest that this isn't -- that they don't have free reign. >> let's pivot to a country that you have become quite familiar with, syria. >> john kerry in his confirmation hearings talked about syria and i want to play a clip and then talk to you on the other side. take a listen.

>> all right. >> right now, president assad doesn't think he's losing, and the opposition thinks it's winning. that is not an equation that allows you to reach some accommodation for transition. the goal of the obama administration and the goal of the international community is to effect some sort of transition. >> they called it quote, pragmatic. has he given any indication whether he would back more u.s. support of rebel fighters in that country? >> i don't think he will, frankly. i think the rebels hope that he will, but i don't think the administration will do that. if this administration, kerry is basically at the end of the day carrying a foreign policy set by the president and if you were going do it, we would have done it already and now with the mess that has become syria where you

have islamic militant groups, you have assad militias running around and we have kurdish groups running around, i think the u.s. is scared of getting involved. >> i was struck by something that you said on inauguration day. you talked about the glaring absence of discussion in the foreign policy in the president's speech. how did you characterize this president's approach to foreign policy? >> i think he doesn't want to deal with it, frankly. a lot of people in this country would agree with him. i think this administration would much rather focus on guns and taxes and other social issues and not deal with the quagmire that is the middle east. the bush years were deep in iraq and afghanistan trying to get between the sunni and shia fight and i think this administration would rather not deal with it. sounds great, but i don't think that's an option because the foreign policy and the rest of the world comes knocking on your

door and the way things are heading right now while we would like to ignore it or not i don't think we'll be able to. >> nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel, always good to see you. the invitation is open. i know you're not stateside much, but when you are, come back. >> i look forward to. >> now to what could shape up to be the senate race in 2014, the battle in kentucky. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell will be making a bid for a sixth term there and there's speculation that he could face a democrat who is pretty well known in her own right. her name is ashley judd. she made several appearances at inaugural parties last weekend and judd to this point is not committed to running and the hill reports this week that kentucky democrats are not sold on her democratically. >> there are some reservations about ashley judd. former kentucky lieutenant governor. good to see you, sir.

>> craig, thanks for having me here. >> she does have reservations to deal with including comments that she made against coal mining, but she's got deep pockets and instant name i.d., why would anyone in their right mind that does not have a d. in the front of their name not want ashley judd in that race. >> mitch mcconnell epitomizes what's wrong in washington, d.c. washington is full of politicians and what we need is a statesman and he's certainly not that. i think ashley is certainly a very intelligent person. she loves kentucky and loves the people of kentucky. if she had a clean slate this would be a no-brainer. the poll shows that she was behind by three points and would have been flipped and mitch mcconnell would be scared to death and his statements against coal in a coal state that it causes her some problems and it will be an uphill battle and the real question is we know she's

comfortable in front of the tv camera. how comfortable is she going to be in front of the voters? is she going to be willing to put in the time, work and effort. >> in kentucky, you have a lot of rubber chicken dinners and shake a lot of hands and what is the speculation about an ashley judd and done for the race? >> this will be a high-profile race because it is mitch mcconnell and even republicans in kentucky are not really sold on him and that's who they have and he's been around for so long, but even republicans are americans and we all are really upset about the quagmire. you just had a piece on how polarized washington is. who led us to the polarization? who has been there for 25 years and mitch mcconnell has caused this, he almost single-handedly has done that in kentucky and he's been a big component of the polarization in washington. so whoever it is that runs

against him is coming from a good position, except if you take a wrong position on the colt. in 2004 when i ran against an incumbent jim bunning i put $160 meals in my -- and how is she going to overcome the coal issue and you can't overcome coal in kentucky and quite frankly, the future of the country depends on where we move coal to. >> we'll have to leave it right there. former kentucky, lieutenant governor. i do appreciate you making the drive to the studio. thank you. >> thank you, craig. switching gears here. the nation's oldest civil rights group is taking on new york city the naacp and the hispanic federation have joined the soft drink industry in a lawsuit to stop the city's ban on those big sodas. those really big sodas. the naacp in a statement attacking new york's mayor michael bloomberg saying quote, our stand is about basic economic fairness.

bloomberg's ban attacks the little bay while giving a pass to big corporations. the mayor michael bloomberg isn't taking it quietly. >> the naacp, in all fairness it's the local chapter and not the national, but for them to do this is such an outright disgrace how they can look themselves in the mirror and knowing they are hurting the life expectancy and the quality of life for the people that most deserve. the same is true for this hispanic organization that sold their soul because a lot of hispanic kids are overweight as well. >> the hispanic federation called the remarks by bloomberg friday, quote, irresponsible. joining me here louis reyes who is also an attorney and also a "usa today k" columnist. i did invite the naacp and hispanic regulation united

states because their position puzzled us. we offered them a variety of time slots and neither group could make it work with their schedules, you, however, have been kind enough to join us and based on your recent writings you seem to agree with the groups? >> actually, i do. in this instance, michael bloomberg, it's a good cause. he has the right idea and i don't doubt his intensions, but the law is bad and the reason the law is bad is because this soda ban is not really a ban. there are exemptions and that's what people don't know about, for example, it xechls super markets, chain stores or conv e convenien convenience. >> in a way it goes too far. that sounds pretty ridiculous. >> it goes too far. this is something. i support many of his health initiatives with smoking and transfats. >> but you want your big gulps. >> you see, craig, with these laws 7-elevens are exempt and you can still get big gulps.

if you want to go to starbucks and buy a venti cappuccino and who this affects and that's why the naacp and hispanic -- >> mom and pop shops. >> the korean grocery stores and delis. >> these are the obesity rates right now in this country. african-americans, 44%. hispanics, 37.9%. the national obesity rate about 36% and both of those groups above the rates, and considerably. why not do something? >> oh, i think we should do something because i'm the first to say that obesity, not to mention heart disease, diabetes and any number of other issues, it's a true public health crisis. it's epidemic and particularly in the hispanic a african-american communities and what bloomberg is doing number one is sort of a government overreach and unlike many of the other health proposals like he

did with the city council and this came from the board of health so it's arbitrary. >> but the other ones came to the board of health. the reason why i say it doesn't go far enough is because for most people if you still want to get your big gulp, you can still get it, but who this does affect is people -- >> it affects black and brown kids, too. >> yes. at the end of the day should the naacp or should the hispanic groups be more concerned about keeping our health and interests and namely coca-cola. >> i can't speak for them, but i do think the issue is not so much whether these non-profits have an improper conflict of interest. >> do you acknowledge that? >> oh, of course. >> that the conflict is -- >> but the issues, public health, mainly obesity and if he wants to make this ban work and have it be effective and possibly lead the nation and institute it in a way where it

will affect all people, why single out one group of people and one group of kids. >> why single out one group of stores and those are the stores that can least afford it. >> i do want to get you to at least acknowledge that it doesn't smell right. >> of course. of course. >> the fact that the naacp and the hispanic group are both in the pocket to a certain extent of the soft drink industry. >> they both receive contributions from the beverage industry or from coca-cola. >> yes. yes. so that doesn't look good, but the big issue is obesity and that's what people should focus on. >> go get you one of those big gulps. >> up next, hillary gets heated. the big moments that had the secretary of state saying enough is enough at her congressional hearings this week. we'll flashback to one of the most infamous statements made by

any president ever, and it came from bill clinton. you may have forgotten about it. and we'll talk about how things have changed mightily from then until now. stay with us. this is msnbc. [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later.

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♪ vicks nyquil -- powerful nighttime 6-symptom cold & flu relief. ♪ this morning we come together to hear about the president's plans to strengthen education. >> today's flhback takes us back to 1998 at an event that started out pretty much like any other white house news conference, but it turned out to be anything but normal. when president clinton made a statement about his new education initiative and then on his own launched into one of the most infamous presidential lines ever uttered. >> i have to go back to work on my state of the union speech and i worked on it pretty late last night, but i want to say one thing to the american people. i want you to listen to me. i'm going to say this again. i did not have sexual relations

with that woman, miss lewinsky. i never told anybody to lie, nota single time, ever. these allegations are false, and i need to go back to work for the american people. thank you. >> you almost forgot the conviction with which he said it. the next night clinton went to capitol hill to deliver that state of the union address with no mention whatsoever of the sex scandal that was consuming his presidency. it would take until december of that year for the u.s. house to impeach president clinton for further false statements involving the affair. all of that was just 15 years ago. a blink of an eye in historical terms, but it seems most of us have forgotten the scandal surrounding the man dubbed the comeback kid. the recent "new york times," cbs news poll finds two-thirds of americans have a favorable rating of the former president. just over a quarter of americans

say they still look down on bill clinton. is the honeymoon over for hillary clinton? this time republicans taking direct aim after this year's ben ghazi hearing after kid gloves. is this about what happened in libya or is it about 2016 and the possible hillary run for the white house. we'll talk about that next. to grow, we have to boost our social media visibility. more "likes." more tweets. so, beginning today, my son brock and his whole team will be our new senior social media strategists. any questions? since we make radiator valves wouldn't it be better if we just let fedex help us to expand to new markets? hmm gotta admit that's better than a few "likes." i don't have the door code. who's that? he won a contest online to be ceo for the day. how am i supposed to run a business here without an office?! [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. fedex.

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. i'm glad that you are accepting responsibility, i think that ultimately with your leaving, you expect the culpability with the worst tragedy since 9/11. >> that was republican senator rand paul, earlier this week, delivering his verdict to secretary of state hillary

clinton during the benghazi hearings. it has triggered new questions about whether the gop is looking ahead to 2016, bracing itself for a hillary campaign. i want to bring in molly ball, c ball, were the benghazi hearings a reminder that the honeymoon could be ending? >> absolutely. you know, there's a couple of reasons that hillary clinton has enjoyed this sort of relief from politics from the last several years partly, as you say, she has not been a candidate and things are different when you are on that political hot seat. and also, secretary of state is a less political position. there hasn't been as much disagreement over foreign policy. so, it's been hard -- so it has

not been a focus of criticism, but when and if she does go back to the public arena or when foreign policy is a flash point for partisans as it has been on benghazi, then you see her back in the old position that we remember from when she was in the white house and from when she was a candidate of her being controversial. >> the vast right wing spearsy top of the mind. they sat down for the first join tv interview on friday, president said i'm going miss her s that surprising to you? and what more can we read into that? >> well, i think in 2008, particularly say in june of 2008, it would have been very surprising to me. now it's not surprising at all. i think they came to a good place in their relationship, not that they are necessarily best friends or anything like that, but the president sets the foreign policy, the secretary of state executes the foreign

policy. influences his foreign policy, at the end of the day, i think you saw hillary clinton as somebody who did what he wanted her to do as secretary of state and was a effective player nor t player for him in the world. what does it say about 2016, joe biden is clearly positioning himself for 2016, president obama will have a hard call to make if it's joe biden versus hillary clinton at somebody in 2016, he may stay out of it. he probably wanted to just say thank you. >> i want to play a clip for you, it struck all of us and so i want to share it with both of you. this is 15 years ago, this weekend. take a look and listen. >> but i want to say one thing to the american people, i want you to listen to me, i'm going to say this again. i did not have sexual relations

with that woman, ms. lewinsky, i never told anybody to lie. not a single time. never. these allegations are false and i need to go back to work for the american people. thank you. [ applause ] >> molly, do you remember that? do you remember the way in which he was saying that to us 15 years ago today? >> i really had forgotten quite how much, as you said, how much conviction he brought to that particular lie. it's a pretty amazing clip. you know, john was talking about the relationship that obama and hillary have been able to forge and i think it tells you a lot about hillary clinton from 15 years ago, to today, from the time she got to the senate, her thing has always been she is a hard worker who sort of doesn't let anything get her down. you know, whether it's the scandal that came at the end of her husband's presidency. >> sure. >> when she got to the senate, she impressed a lot of people by just putting her head down,

ignoring all the noise and getting to work. same thing as secretary of state, if she becomes a candidate that will really be her reputation. >> jonathan and molly, thank you, and molly i understand your brother is being deployed to afghanistan, all of us here from msnbc want to wish him well, navy seal, give him our regard. >> thank you. >> president obama going to set forward his immigration reform, we will dig into what it will look like and anti-abortion protesters gathered for the annual march for life. we are just getting started here. ll having such a great year in the gulf, we've decided to put aside our rivalry. 'cause all our states are great. and now is when the gulf gets even better. the beaches and waters couldn't be more beautiful. take a boat ride or just lay in the sun. enjoy the wildlife and natural beauty. and don't forget our amazing seafood. so come to the gulf, you'll have a great time. especially in alabama.

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